I'll agree with Ken, everyone can have a short burst of speed on a downhill, or even flat. It doesnt take a lot of skill, but mainly guts. 36ers arn't called distance unicycles without a reason, you'd want to get a high average speed instead of quick bursts that will tire you more in the long run. I have more respect for riders who keep a constant high average than someone only going for his max speed.

I hope that photo with me and the speedo is hidden somewhere safe, I remember being a little red in the face it's nice to see how fast people can go, but keep in mind that GPS systems and cyclecomputers are not the most accurate ways to measure peaks.

I dont quite see the comparison, but if you would have read the thread you would have seen that I have one of the fastest speeds on an ungeared unicycle. Going fast downhill is easier than having a controlled, slow decent, especially on short cranks. Going fast is a mindset, your body will kick in 200 RPM when forced to (and it will do so, to prevent falling off). The hard part is keeping that amount of revolutions up for a longer period of time.

Well -- I actually disagree with Dustin and Ken -- short bursts of speed *do* take skill; there are many people who simply can't do it. However, maintaining fast speeds over long distances *don't* take as much skill; they take strength, and endurance. I don't have much strength and endurance compared to a lot of the people who are really fast at marathon/10km races.

Take the ride where I last hit 26mph -- I have GPS data from my iPhone:

Well -- I actually disagree with Dustin and Ken -- short bursts of speed *do* take skill; there are many people who simply can't do it. However, maintaining fast speeds over long distances *don't* take as much skill; they take strength, and endurance. I don't have much strength and endurance compared to a lot of the people who are really fast at marathon/10km races.

corbin

Hey, I didn't say it didn't take any skill!!! For anyone who's seen Dustin riding 90mm cranks on a Coker I think it's hard to say that there is no skill involved.

A highest max speed is something that would be interesting as a record. But for racing it's pretty irrelevant, it's the average speed that counts.

WOW, I haven't been to rec.sport in ages! Last I was here, I think, must've been December or something! :-( I've been getting emails about unicon and I'm starting to get excited, and I figured I'd come see what everybody was up to...

But, I suppose I'll add myself to the list, seeing that this thread is only a few days old. I keep my cycle computer set at 2,775mm circumfrence for my nightrider tire on my guni, and the fastest I've ever seen was 28.8mph, on my 150mm cranks. I actually looked down and saw this while I was pedaling; I was chasing a road biker I knew down a hill on pacific coast highway near Laguna Beach. It's funny, because as crazy-fast as I was spinning, the roadie on the bike was effortlessly coasting about 100 feet in front of me, pulling away. Arrgh :-P

I've seen speeds in the 27.0 to 28.2 range five or six times since then, and all of those times were with 125 cranks while I was feeling really spunky. I've since totally gone back to 150s, because I'm not strong enough to push 125s hard in high gear for a long period of time anymore. There were a couple times where I hung on for dear life on the back of a bike pack holding 21 to 23mph for 6 to 10 miles, but afterwards, I was totally wasted, and for the bikes it was an easy aerobic "60-80 mile light spin" morning. Again, arrgh!

And yeah, taking the unis to the salt flats or dry lakes would be AMAZING, corbin!! I'd prefer to race at night to try to stay out of the wind, but that'd be epic. Or perhaps a perfectly flat, circular course with a one to three-mile circumfrence, and wind-buffering walls to the sides of it :-D

Part of me wants to get in my motorcycle gear and wear kneepads and put on some 110mm ISIS cranks and see how fast the thing will go, expecting to eat it hard, but I don't think I have the cajones to do it.

WOW, I haven't been to rec.sport in ages! Last I was here, I think, must've been December or something! :-( I've been getting emails about unicon and I'm starting to get excited, and I figured I'd come see what everybody was up to...

Yeah, I wondered where you disappeared to. How long are you going to stay in NZ for? I'll see ya over there!

And, whoa! 28.8 is amazingly fast! I definitely want to try 125s some time again. I used them for a short bit right after I got the guni, but as you said, it was too hard to push in the high gear, so I switched back to 150s.

Hopefully you are back in town for us to start riding together again -- unfortunately I'll be gone in africa all summer.
-corbin

I think it would be cool to have some landspeed records for unicycling, someone mentioned that the IHPVA (International Human Powered Vehicle Association?) measure speeds over 200 metres, I wonder what the other rules are? It wouidn't really need salt flats, just a flat stretch of road or airfield.

I don't know what my top speed is as I've never had a cycle computer on my coker, I really should get round to putting one on

Hey corbin, I"ll be to Cupertino by June 20th; hopefully you'll still be around for a quick ride by then? And yeah James, I'll see you in NZ at the very least, unless you still decide to move out to norcal :-D. Don't know how long I'm going to be able to stay... depends on the school schedule. Longer, the better!

Also, 200 meter speed trials would indeed rock. Although... going superly fast on flat ground is WAY more scary than going superly fast downhill. (Twitchy fingers on brake handles give a LOT of confidence!) That'll really take guts, and separate the spinners from the powerfolk. All the more reason to give it a try, I guess I think I might get left behind by some of the more fearless riders, though. The "fastest I've ever hit" on flat ground is probably decently quick, but holding it there for 200 meters would be such an error-prone endeavor that I'd be scared out of my wits if I tried to ride that hard and spin and balance for 18-20 whole seconds. I know I'd be riding the 125s in that case, though.... hells yeah :-D

I've seen speeds in the 27.0 to 28.2 range five or six times since then, and all of those times were with 125 cranks while I was feeling really spunky.

Chuck, you're a nutter!

I've hit 26.7mph (43kph) once, fixed with 114s, which was just believable (I know it was on a really scary burst) but a bit of an exception. I have got to 23-24mph (39kph) many times with fixed wheel downhill - still a bit scary.

With my 36" Schlumpf with 150s I haven't fully got the guts to let rip yet, but have got up to 24mph (39kph) on downhills. That feels really fast, but it's less scary than doing it with fixed spinning.